A slew of figures to get through from the tranche of economic indicators released Tuesday morning. China's industrial output growth accelerated unexpectedly, up 12.8 percent in December from a year earlier. That's faster, compared to November's 12.4 percent expansion.

Meanwhile, China's retail sector also did well, rising just over 18 percent from a year earlier - and that's up from 17.3 percent growth in November.

Fixed asset investment is a primary driver of the country's economic growth, and is a yardstick for judging the size and growth of investment in infrastructure, real estate and factories. That went up 23.8 percent - down slightly from the growth seen from January to November, and also under economists' expectations of a 24 percent rise.

Finally, real estate investment - considered by many analysts as the major drag on the Chinese economy right now and for the months to come - rose just under 28 percent in all of 2011. That's a touch slower than the 30 percent seen in January to October.